1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method, an electrolytic cell, and a kit for measuring the iodine adsorption number of carbon black.
2. Description of the Related Art
Carbon black exhibits a large surface area and a high adsorbability by virtue of a plurality of pores formed therein, and thus can be used for the production of various products, for example, an electrode, a catalytic substrate, a pigment, an adsorbent, a rubber intensifier, etc.
The iodine adsorption number is commonly used for evaluating the surface area of carbon black, and the greater the iodine adsorption number, the larger will be the surface area of the carbon black. The industry-accepted standard test for determining the iodine adsorption number of carbon black is set forth in ASTM-D1510. This test is conducted by dispersing a precisely weighted amount of carbon black into an iodine solution that is previously standardized so as to form a mixture, and centrifuging the mixture so as to obtain a supernatant and a precipitate, followed by separating the supernatant from the precipitate. The supernatant thus obtained is subsequently titrated with a standard sodium thiosulfate solution, and the titration volume is recorded in order to calculate the iodine adsorption number. The aforementioned test is disadvantageous in that it requires preparation of the standard sodium thiosulfate solution and that titration of the supernatant is normally conducted manually, which is likely to cause inaccuracy problem in the measured iodine adsorption number attributed to human error. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method that is efficient and effective in measuring the iodine adsorption number of carbon black and that can eliminate the aforementioned human error.